The next government must harness the power of ICT

Since Barack Obama won the US presidency last year, there has been speculation that the general election in 2010 might be the first truly “internet election” in the UK. If fallout from the appearances of Gordon Brown and David Cameron on social networking site MumsNet is anything to go by, there is some way to go before online campaigning becomes really decisive in the UK.

However, whether next year brings a new occupant to Number 10 or not, there are some very clear and real challenges for the next government – possibly the greatest for a generation – and our industry can provide many of the solutions.

The most obvious of those challenges will be bringing Britain out of recession and restoring growth in the British economy.  Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has recently suggested that the UK economy has "only just started" along its road to economic recovery.  He has also predicted that it will be late 2011 before the UK is back to the level it was at before the recession. 

His cautious optimism is a sign that we can take nothing for granted.  With a disgraced and more highly regulated financial services industry, politicians will be searching for signs of growth and recovery in new sectors.  How we present our industry in the run up to and in the months following a general election will be vital to securing policies that will help research-intensive industries like ICT, that rely on a highly skilled and mobile workforce to thrive in the UK.

It is no secret that government itself will feel the pain of the recession for many years to come. In September 2009, the public sector net debt (as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product) stood at 59 per cent, the highest for over 10 years. The debt is expected to rise to 79 per cent of GDP by 2013 – its highest level since the Second World War.  Living within their straitened means will be a pressing day-to-day concern for ministers in an incoming government – especially when faced with the unappealing prospect of cutting services. 

A paper that Intellect has recently submitted to the Chancellor suggests that around five per cent of the government’s current expenditure is on ICT.  However, intelligent use of ICT can help deliver huge potential saving to the other areas.  Freeing up public servants from routine tasks and allowing them to focus on more high value and fulfilling activities can improve productivity significantly across a range of different business areas. 

I think that it is fair to say that ICT in government suffers from some significant image problems.  However, efforts to reduce the government’s deficit should provide an opportunity to demonstrate the value and the quality of the IT sector here in the UK. 

Perhaps most challenging of all will be the fight to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions and limit the effects of climate change globally.  A growing and increasingly urban world population is consuming resources of all kinds at a much greater rate than they can be restored.  The ICT industry has its part to play in minimising our use of resources through measures such as improved energy efficiency in our products and services.  

However, we can make a much greater impact on the world if we focus on ICT as a way to enable people across the world to do business in a more resource-efficient manner.  This is a perspective that was backed up by the European Commission, which recently estimated that ICT-enabled improvements in other sectors could save about 15 per cent of total carbon emissions by 2020 - with particular benefits for building and construction, transport logistics and energy use.   

The fact that the European Commission has formally recognised the role of ICT in cutting carbon emissions is a great achievement for the industry but we must work hard to make those proposals a reality.  In the UK much depends on the outcome of the next election.  However, whatever the result, we must, as an industry, demonstrate our readiness to respond to the challenges our politicians face.